Category: DIY

Ok I’m a teensy bit late, the first day of spring was actually yesterday, but I’m back from my hiatus!

And I’m so excited for spring!

I mean the weather is pretty great all year round here, (perks of living where others vacation) but the time change makes my evenings more enjoyable and the weather means mini and I will be visiting the neighborhood playground a lot more often. Actually after I picked her up last night, still sweaty from climbing the stair master at the gym, she asked me if we could go and I obliged.

There were a lot of other kids enjoying the playground and the beautiful breeze, had me thinking about bringing some spring into our home…

I want to do a little house refresh for the season change, bring some “outside in” and brighten up the house and outdoor spaces.

Here’s some of my inspiration for some potential DIYs, tell me what you think or if you have any other ideas! Are you doing anything to refresh your home this spring?

Let’s start with the front of the house. I need a welcoming wreath; I had a fall one, a Christmas one and now the wreath hook is looking lonely so I need one for spring.

I really like these two wreaths because they mix textures and colors. I love the look of the rustic branches with the different flowers and leaf types.

I also want to put one of those door decals that says hello or welcome, in a pretty cursive.

How cute is this yellow door with the decal?!:

Our porch could use some kind of a table or chair too. It’s a small space, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be bare and boring, which it is right now. Maybe a rustic rocking chair next to a planter of flowers (bonus points for fresh herbs!) and a lantern to finish it off?

Something like this:

D could sit out here in the evenings and have a glass of cognac and a cigar like he likes 🙂

This is cute too, but I would need a nice outdoor cushion to make the chair comfortable to relax on.

Inside I want to incorporate more green and glass; I think by making some terrariums. I love the little glass worlds of moss, rocks, pebbles and fun miniature accents.

I have an empty jar shaped just like this one waiting to be useful actually.

I’ve been meaning to dress up the entryway area by changing up the light fixture and probably updating to smart bulbs (Phillips hue anyone?). I’m kind of obsessed with this pendant light I found on arhaus:

Love the Moroccan vibe and shape of this!!!
And this one I’ve had my eye on for the dining area from westelm.

It comes in silver too, but I think the dark accent will look nice with the wood floors and dark bar furniture in the space.

Actually I was looking on arhaus site, under the living room section, after i found the pendant light and I think we could use a couch upgrade.

This neutral color, some bright yellow pillows, a cozy beige throw and I think I’d be ready to curl up with my latest unread book. After I scotch guard it of course 😀

Maybe a new media console too? Life of living with a toddler means I can never have too much storage, our current one gets the job done but it isn’t exceeding my expectations. I want something with doors so I can put all the boardgames, puzzles and cookbooks into.

Let’s not forget the backyard; it needs some loving too.

I donated our patio furniture because it couldn’t fit our space when D wasn’t home a few months back and haven’t replaced it with anything yet. He was not so happy to hear that! But the furniture was too large for the size lanai we have, he couldn’t argue with me about that fact.

I’m thinking a cute wicker bistro set so mini and I can sip lemonade while D grills summer veggies and chicken kabobs for us and friends 🙂

But I also want a fun sitting piece like maybe this round swivel from arhaus

Or this fun lounger with a shade from pier1

Also definitely want to get a smart thermostat. With the warmer weather I would love to save some money on the electric bill by having a smart thermostat to help regulate a comfortable temp for when we’re home and when we aren’t. Since we moved in last year, I had my heart set on the Nest. It’s sleek, has an easy to use interface and pays for itself not too long after buying it.

But at a friends house recently I saw they had the ecobee and it piqued my interest, so I’ll do some research on both.

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i needed to pick up an order from a store on the other side of town this weekend. it was an online order so i could have had it shipped for $6 or i could pick it up in store for the free…

i chose the free option because well yeah it was free. and this particular store happens to be next to an IKEA. who doesn’t love IKEA? i don’t know, everyone i know does. so yeah i paid IKEA a visit and picked up some things for the house, including materials for a project I’ve been meaning to do in baby girl’s room.

a book wall!

we’ve been collecting a good number of books for her since she was born and it makes me so happy for her little book collection to be growing at such a young age. i hope she loves to read like her mommy..

but up until this point we haven’t had a good way to store them. in the last house i had a few small bins that i stacked by age/type of book. in the current place, they’ve been collecting dust in a box. yeah we still haven finished unpacking all our boxes; it’s a process, don’t judge me!

in comes the book wall. and it only cost me $18 (+ materials i already had at home)

each shelf is actually a picture ledge from IKEA, $6 each !

all i had to do was gather up my mounting materials and get to work

drill

pencil

anchors

screws

level

and voila. book wall that looks inviting and helps her see some of the titles so she can choose. this doesn’t hold all her books, but I’m happy with it.

Sunday, our friends invited us to go to the Science Center with them.

not going to lie, that place was pretty amazing. they had 4 floors of interactive fun for the family, and our babies were eating it right up. it made my heart swell to see them engaging their minds and playing with all the “toys” .

i’m a big fan of creative play so i know we will be back to the center in the future to spend more time having fun.

our last closet was also a walk in with 5 closet rods, and 2 towers of cubbie/drawer sytems. AND we fit a chest of drawers at the back.

that’s right 2 sets of double hang rods, and a single rod that i used for long dresses. Cubbie/drawers that fit socks, workout gear, bathing suits, purses, a basket for flat shoes, more workout gear, undershirts, etc. And with space to fit a whole 6 drawer unit.

[We had to get rid of the chest of drawers because space is different here but we still have a dresser which is in front of our bed.]

this closet has a window which is nice cause it brings in a lot of light but it does take away from some space which could have been used for storage. im not so mad about it though, our last closet was dark and im all for adding natural light.

First up on the list was redoing the carpet. Since we redid the floors in our room, it made sense to do the closet as well.

Then I added some paint.

Who says closets should be plain white? -Color is Sherwin Williams Stream.

Next was the assembly of this Shoecase (Ikea Billy Bookcase). I bought 2 extra shelves to add in as well. Thinking about getting a third..

Last closet we didn’t have any good spot for storing shoes, so i fixed that in this one 🙂 Especially because D and I both have a good amount of them.

I moved the shoecase around a little bit til i found the right corner for it.
And then I took this 25″ Custom Closet Organizer and set it up.

(Sneak peek of the rug underneath. Unexpected find from Home Depot, 8’x 10′ with a print, perfect for use underneath the king bed! And it was on saleeeeee.)

so this is the left side progress view.

and the right side, before my dress rod went up

And then it turned into:

we still need to add the shelving to the D’s side and an additional shelf above my dress rod and then it will be complete. mostly.

I started prepping for mini’s birthday party including playing with fondant for cake toppers. I accidentally made Anna smaller than Elsa so I’m probably going to redo them but I thought they were kind of cute.

I also put together some table centerpieces. -These were super easy and made with stuff I had at home.

The jars are bath and body candle jars that I cleaned out when they were finished. I had card stock in silver that I cut into strips and used a hot glue gun to attach to the jar. I crumpled up blue tissue paper and used that for filler.

Then I cut number 3s out of the silver card stock and taped them to skewers. I found glitter snowflakes when I was shopping for theme stuff and used those attached to skewers too. Boom done.

I also did a cool DIY with these lamp bases that I found on sale at Joann.

I got 2 matching ones to go on our bedside tables, now I need to find lampshades that I like.

They started off clear and with a texture inside but I was really digging the Mercury look so I bought some looking glass spray paint and sprayed the inside. I also sprayed it with a vinegar water solution and blotted it with a paper towel to get this effect.

Saturday we spent most of the day at our friend’s house warming party. Mini had some little friends to play and we got to know her family and other friends a little better. It was a nice day but we were so tired that by the time we got home at like 930 that we all fell asleep before 10!

Sunday we woke up to the terrible news of the tragedy that happened at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

It broke my heart to hear of the senseless acts of people who fill their hearts and minds with hate. It’s crazy what happened and I pray for the families of those affected and for the survivors that now learn to cope with what they just endured. Hug your loved ones a little closer and don’t forget to tell them how much you love them.

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This hallway is basically the first thing people see when they walk in our house, I wanted it to make a statement.
So first we took out the boring flushmount standard white light

and replaced it with this beauty❤️

I posted this picture on social media and within minutes no less than 10 people messaged me to tell me how dope this thing was.

I have a vision for my house and I’m glad so many people reached out to let me know they appreciate it!

It can close or open depending on how much light you want.

In the daytime it looks like this

Next up for hallway transformation was a console table. To be honest I wasn’t looking for one, I knew I’d need one but it just wasn’t a priority at this point. We have a rack that we can hang our keys on, and we have other projects to worry about and boxes to finish unpacking.

But while I’m out I always keep my eyes open for things I like. Like these cool shiny decor items

I ended up taking the ampersand home with me.
And then I found this table.

It was so cute.

It was different than a lot of other boring console tables I’ve seen on the web. I had to have it for myself.

So I bought it.

But the legs were a little too pale for my liking.

Look how nice it looks fits in this space!

But something had to be done about those legs.

I tapped off the white tips, and sanded down the part I wanted to stain. I didn’t do a good enough job taping off the white, note to self don’t be stingy with the tape.

And in the end I’m soo happy with the final result!

The legs go really well with the darker floors now.

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this bathroom was exciting for a few reasons, the paint color was not one of them.

Reasons to be excited:

I would have space to put a vanity chair (and therefore have a seat to do my morning makeup in) and be able to organize my makeup in a neat way on the counter. Also there’s a drawer so i could utilize that as well.

The tub meant i could take relaxing baths.

The size meant me and D wouldn’t be falling over each other trying to get ready in front of the mirror.

But the paint was sad. I don’t have anything against brown walls, but there’s no window in this bathroom, and it just made the space feel small and dark.

Project 1: Paint the bathroom.
I used the same color as the other bathrooms: Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. I absolutely love this color for all the bathrooms, and I’m so happy I chose it.

And then there was removing those old towel bars, and toilet paper holder. We had 2 towel bars in here, one by the shower and one on the other side of the bathroom above the bath.

And I added shelves for a little bathroom decor/storage. Same style shelves as the ones in the other bath- can you see the what i’m doing here? continuity in all the bathrooms- check.

I love that the open shelves give me space to store things but in a way i can do so artistically. Loads of soap in a cool glass jar; rolls on rolls of toilet paper in a wire basket; pretty candle; no purpose pretty mercury glass shiny thing. I like the mix of textures that I am able to showcase, but its all in a useful way cause I need it within reach ya kno. Especially the toilet paper.

This is the new towel bar we put up. The hands can swing out and allow up to 4 towels to dry simultaneously. Pretend like you can’t see where I patched the wall.

Here is my makeup organization for the counter. Acrylic 3 drawer set, and a lipstick holder/extra compartment thing that fits nicely on top. I used glass jars to the right to hold my brushes, which need to be cleaned.

Open the drawer and you can see I used acrylic dividers to group items together so it’s not just a big convoluted mess.I also purged old makeup before putting it in here. This is a good amount for me to have, I think. (There’s like 6 eye shadow palettes on the left I should get around to using O_O)

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photo courtesy of when the last owner’s lived here. white walls, 1 hook for a towel.

First:

Take the hook off the wall and paint the bathroom.

You guessed it: Sherwin Williams Sea Salt.
Then removed the toilet paper holder and put up a new towel bar.

A double rod to maximize towel hanging space.

Also we needed a shower curtain rod so I got one of the curved ones. It makes the curtain hang close to the toilet if you’re sitting on that but having a curved rod makes the shower space seem roomier. Pros outweigh the cons I think.

The shower curtain is the same one we had in the last place, it makes for a fun bathroom I think. And this is baby girls bathroom so we like fun. Also I think the wall color plays nicely with the underwater/sea theme.

I’m thinking about adding a cute mermaid decal in here to go along with the theme and cause little mama seems to like mermaids.

I still need to get her a toothbrush holder, and set up the guest toiletries but this bathroom is basically done.